September 2009 Archives

This is one of the only "before" photos I have of a very lovely old building downtown, the Ames or MJA building on the corner of Second and Stewart. The "before" means before it was nominated for landmark designation. The vote for nomination failed. If a nomination fails, the building can't be renominated for five years. The owner, who had redevelopment plans for the property (demolition and new construction of a much taller building), had all of the beautiful terra cotta tile removed from the building. It was hammered off, tossed in a dumpster and taken to the dump. The building was re-surfaced with fake stucco EIFS material. Now it is safe from future attempts at landmark designation.

CB Richard Ellis leases this property. The building was defaced last October, in order to circumvent any new landmark nomination, but of course nothing can be built there in the current market. On the CBRE web page, this building is shown with terra cotta intact. Over the picture it says "Reduced Rate!". Of course it was worth more before it was ruined, and tenants left when leases were up because the future of the building was uncertain. I am still in shock every time I see this building. If I walk past it, I tap on the fake stucco panels in the hope that the terra cotta might still be behind them, even though I know better. It's just so hard to believe.

I remember walking through Dublin when Ireland was roaring towards the height of its boom years. Whole streets of old buildings were nothing but facades with timbers holding them up, so new construction could go in behind. Same thing that year in Glasgow. That was the rule, and it made a level playing field for all players. Development wasn't slowed in the least. Cristalla did this, keeping the terra cotta facade of the Crystal Pool and natatorium. If we designated the buildings worth keeping with one broad brush and leveled the playing field, everyone else would do the same. It preserves history, and beauty, and the wonderful sense of streetscape and streetwall that gets lost in the midst of the grand new behemoths. There's no excuse for this sort of waste.

Second and Bell feels like the heart of Belltown. It wasn't always in Belltown. It was on Denny Hill, then the Denny Regrade. The hill was washed away so Downtown could expand north. It didn't actually happen as planned. After the last regrade it was a neighborhood of car lots and repair shops, service industries convenient to downtown, inexpensive housing, neighborhood cafes, groceries and bars. Now, lumped together with lower Belltown, it's in a densely populated urban neighborhood of around 12,000 people, still growing. Growth brings change, new buildings replace old. Some things are missed, others forgotten. Some hang in there on a wish and a prayer.



2nd Avenue looking south, around 1890. Seattle Collection of the University of Washington Libraries

This photo of 2nd and Bell shows Denny Hill rising to the south. This street was regraded around 1903. In the mid-left, with gabled window bays and finials, is the Wayne Apartments building, today known as Belltown Funky Studios. Will tells me Paul Dorpat has written of it but I have not yet found the citation. The building somehow survived the regrade. It may have been jacked up during the process, as it was later raised over ground floor shops in the form that it has today, three storefronts which now house Noodle Ranch, Lava Lounge and Juju.

Saturday night at Mama's. There is a birthday party, someone has turned thirty-two. A woman enters wearing a trenchcoat. A man with a guitar follows her. She performs a short birthday burlesque, back in the corner, out of sight of anyone not in the party. She is wearing a harem outfit, not too risque. This is a family-friendly place. The 30-somethings seem to own the night, tonight, Saturday.
 


A young man is pacing the terrace of the Funky Studios, cradling an infant. He sees me looking and walks behind the canopy of the street tree, out of sight. The oldest building has one of the youngest residents. Some of the oldest residents live here, on this block, too. The Wayne building goes through long periods of single ownership. There was once a threat of upheaval over rental rates for the Lava Lounge; the Lava Lounge is still there. But this building is made of wood. It shows it's age. If it survives all potential dangers, it will someday need expensive repairs, expensive enough to call for higher rents in return. How will the life of this building change? How will it change the neighborhood? There's no point in worry. There are all kinds of people on the sidewalk, of all ages. The neighborhood is like that; the buildings are like that too. For now, all is well.

Cross-posted to Inside Belltown

This building is now for sale. I haven't been able to find out the asking price. Someone told me this building is a gold mine; I know I can't buy this building. I wish I had wealthy friends who would buy this building. Someone buy this building. Be my friend and do something fabulous with it. You can invite me to live in it, if you like. I would do that for you, my friend. But please don't hurt this building. Be good to it. If you hurt it I might have to channel it's many ghosts to haunt you terribly. But you wouldn't do that, right, friend?

Seriously, this is a fabulous, beautiful old gold mine of a building. It will be expensive to fix it properly, but well worth while, in my opinion. I'm sorry it won't be mine. I can't afford to have any part of it. It was just a dream.

Last week I started writing for the Inside Belltown blog for the Seattle P-I. This is not that blog. Read that blog, not this one. I write for my employer's blog. Read that one too. This is a stealth blog. I keep it under the radar. It's not a neighborhood blog or a community service. It's not meant to be one of those widely read blogs by self-promoting knowledgeable people where every post gets hundreds of comments and starts long argumentative threads. This is not that. For one thing, I use Moveable Type to build this blog. I don't know how to use Moveable Type. I don't know how to make it easy to post comments. It's better that way. There's a saying, "Dance as if no one is watching". I don't dance. I write. On this blog I write whatever I want, as if no one is reading. It's better if I can believe no one is. I write my opinions. I'm a serious professional person, I'm not supposed to have opinions. Someone I might want to do business with might get offended. I need to be taken seriously. So please don't read this blog. I also get wonkish and long winded on some favorite obscure topics. No one wants to read wonkish navel-gazing. Sometimes I post pretty pictures. It's okay to admire the pretty pictures. But, seriously, don't read this blog. I'm telling you for your own good. Actually it's for my own good. Thank you for your consideration.

 
These buildings were recently given a reprieve from the wrecking ball when the financial crisis killed this project. It's a shame to say it, but I was very relieved, because this absolute monster would have gone up just a few feet away from this lesser monster. After the Escala was designed the city changed the codes to require smaller tower floorplates, so nothing like this could be built again, thank goodness. It looks okay standing alone, but what if another were right next to it, or right behind it? Who thinks things like this are a good idea? Who thinks they will retain value? Most developers don't care; they build it, sell it, and go to the next project. There is no long-term investment on their part. Why people buy it is beyond me; I don't see it as a good investment or as a good quality of life.





The last I heard one of the development partners on the Heron and Pagoda went bankrupt and one or more of these old buildings were going to be auctioned in June. I haven't seen anything to confirm that; there's no sign of new ownership. It's even possible the plan is still on and waiting for the right market conditions in 2011 or 2012. What's really bad is that code still allows these monstrous twin towers on huge podiums, which are even worse than the Escala that couldn't be built now.



If these old buildings were for sale, the people at the Escala would be smart to buy them and resell them as is, while retaining the air rights. They keep space and views, rather than having an even taller monster 18 feet from their balconies, and we get to keep some nice old building stock and good streetwall fabric that can still be put to very good use. We also avoid a new monster. In the meantime most of the storefronts are still vacant, and will be for some time to come if the Heron and Pagoda is still viable. Hairy people with dogs sleep in the doorways, scrawl "beer" in garish yellow paint, draw disturbing vignettes, and make pretty paper manikins to guard their sleep and their possessions. The MID Downtown Ambassadors politely roust them out in the morning, so genteel people can walk to work without seeing sleeping people and dogs. Except they don't wake them until closer to 9:00 am - so it's more for the benefit of the Monorail tourists, I suppose. Please save these buildings and put some life in them again.

I want this building. I want to live here. I want to move my employer's office here into a big, open studio office, desks in between the great timber columns. I want artist studios. I want musicians. I want pedicab pedalers. I want a stable for the tourist carriage horses and a drinking trough for the police horses, including Cody, my granddaughter's favorite. I want a happening party place on the roof. I want a free community meeting space. I want it all, right here in this old building. Plumbing will be a nightmare. Artists, help me turn the pipes into art, in this, my pipe dream.

 

As I've mentioned before, I was really happy when Bedlam opened. It's the kind of business that gives an all-day presence, encourages people to hang out and congregate, puts bodies and eyes on the street and helps to deter some of the worst of the activity that the corner of 2nd and Bell has been infamous for. The owners, Chris, Jesse and Ben, really seem to be interested in the community building, social function of a good Seattle coffee house. They furnished it with comfortable recycled furniture, including an overstuffed sofa, and the big picture window has a window seat with pillows. It's a living room, and comfort was the goal. There are board games to play, and some people bring their own. Others bring their laptops to do some work. I once got more work done there in 10 minutes than in several weekend hours spent at the office. There is a meeting room in back that can be reserved, for free. The decor is eclectic and wonderful and perfect for funky Belltown.

 

Bedlam also functions as a community center. It's a place for events, from Amy Courts live concerts on the sidewalk, to CreateLive artist performance and auction. There are changing art exhibits, and a large flat screen with CoCollage, a constantly morphing digital exhibit of photos and comments posted by customers and friends. Bedlam is where our local icon, the Belltown Needle resides while the guys try to get a more permanent post for it on the corner of 2nd and Bell. Bedlam is a wonderful coffee house, but is not a true community center, because it's not public. A coffee house is a for-profit business. Signs had to be put on the sidewalk tables to reserve them for customers, because they were too inviting for people passing by. I can afford to spend a few bucks frequently and take advantage of our neighborhood living room, but Belltown, the most densely populated neighborhood in the city, doesn't have a public community center. It might not be as cool and inviting as Bedlam, but one is needed here. You would still find me at Bedlam, though.

 

I'm behind on a deadline at work, and have been working late at night. Tonight I decided I needed a Mama's fix to rejuvenate me, so I walked over there around 8pm. One of our local eccentrics, to use a more polite term, was pacing in front of the Trib alley on Blanchard and had me in his sights. He let me know in no uncertain terms that I was in "his" house, that he lives in Seattle, and that I should go back to West Seattle where I came from. I nodded in agreement and kept going - to Mama's, not West Seattle. I can sort of get where he might be coming from, though. Belltown is popular and we get a lot of visitors in our neighborhood. Having all the people here is great, but I wish more of them could get here without driving and parking in the neighborhood. More people, good, more cars, bad. We don't need more cars in our house. That's why I say go ahead with the tunnel as AWV replacement, and wish for a way to get the streetcar on 1st Avenue sooner rather than later.

We have our share of "eccentrics" because we have more than our share of social service agencies and housing for people who need the services. I've never had a real problem with any of them, although I was once frightened by a drug dealer, and once by an addict. I'd rather have all the people here than worry about the chances of one actually being dangerous; sort of an open door policy, I guess. Anyway, Mama's was thoroughly rejuvenating, I discovered they had delicious Rogers pilsner from Georgetown Brewery, and was in a much better mood to return to work for some late night productivity. Stopped at Bedlam for a caffeine jolt first.

* I just remembered that this is the one year anniversary of the citywalker blog! There are 77 posts to date.